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The Greatest Marketing Tool Ever?

So, you want to get a sneak peak of the bad guy who will be the villain in the soon to be released sequel to The Dark Knight? Or maybe you’d like to learn how to get through that pesky level of Angry Birds that kept you up until 3am last night? YouTube is the answer to all your questions. It is now ranked as the 3rd most visited website in the world (behind only Facebook and Google) and has daily views numbering over 600 million. But nowadays YouTube is truly more than just a place to watch funny videos. Millions view it as not only as their source for entertainment but their one-stop shop for education, news, how-to’s, social networking, business and more!

What has launched YouTube into social networking royalty is that it is easy to use, has a very well designed interface and is highly shareable across every popular platform. This allows just about anyone with a decent video phone to share videos and have them seen by thousands (and sometimes millions) in just a few days. It is optimized for 18 different languages, is accessed all over the world and sports videos on anything and everything imaginable. Some of these videos are strange and humorous; others are solemn, reflecting deep and somber matters. Some are for business, others are for education, but all in all, YouTube serves as a hot spot for showcasing who you are, what you do and why you do it.

This creates massive marketing opportunities for savvy business professionals. Whether you own a small business or run a nationwide marketing campaign there simply is no other way on the planet to quickly share your message in a compelling way and actually have it be seen by your target audience. And all for the low, low price of free! Combine that with the fact that since Google bought YouTube, videos are flying up the Google search rankings. Go to Google now and type in “play the guitar” and the first 4 results are YouTube videos.

So here is the bottom line if you are responsible for marketing your service or product: YouTube is taking over the world and the longer you ignore it, the lower you will sink.

As a social media marketing consultant, I am constantly helping our clients gain traction on YouTube. Depending on your business it might be best to invest a couple thousand dollars to hire a marketing team to create and market your videos on YouTube. But if you aim to do it yourself, let me give you a few very quick tips:

Quality

Your video quality has to be consistent with your business. For example, if you are marketing DJ services at a wedding, some cool iPhone footage might be perfect. If you are marketing a top tier project management company then you must hire video professionals to produce something fantastic. Remember that the quality of your video production says as much as the video itself. A good YouTube marketer will be worth what you pay him even if it is just a few hours consulting to set you up on a good strategy.

Labels

What good is it to have an amazing video if no one sees it? Positioning your video is the key and you do that by labeling it strategically. This is done through your title, description, tags and thumbnails. Now, I could literally write chapters on this subject but the bottom line is this – do you want your labels to be accurate or do you want your video to be seen? Sometimes those can be the same but when push comes to shove your best bet is to label your video in a way that attracts viewers. Pay particular attention to your title and thumbnail as they tell the viewer whether or not this video is worth the time before they ever click to view it.

Marketing

For your video to really take off you need views, likes and comments. How do you get these? First, make sure that your video is appealing to your target audience. Notice I said target audience. Which would you rather have: 2,000 views by a random audience or 200 views by potential clients? You do this by making sure the content of the video speaks to your people. Next, start sharing the video across other social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and make sure to tag the people that you most want to see it. If you did a good job with the quality, labeling and content then chances are they will turn around and share it as well and that is very, very good for you. Finally, embedding the video on your website and/or blog will push it over the top!

YouTube’s success won’t be fleeting because it is built around video and until holographic virtual reality takes over then video is our best medium for online communication. I urge you to get in the game and take advantage of this unbelievable marketing tool.

Take care and let us know how Digital Brand Makeover can help your business create massive success on YouTube!

Todd

[schema type=”person” name=”Todd Horchner” orgname=”Digital Brand Makeover” jobtitle=”Founding Partner and Solutions Coordinator” url=”http://www.digitalbrandmakeover.com/author/toddh/” description=”Bringing his years of media training experience, Todd is a sought after expert in discovering the genuine needs of an organization and customizing tools that create positive results. Todd’s aim is to join your team and truly understand the message that needs to be communicated. From there he pulls from the talents of the DBrand team to form solutions that bring results.” ]